The Love of the Wielder (The Wielders Book Two)

Kieran sighed. It was so hard to find good help.

“Get that cleaned up,” he ordered the Tracker outside his office as he left.

The last group of men who manned one of the checkpoints had arrived at the Capitol. He wasn’t sure which checkpoint had let his brother and the witch through, so he killed them all.

He thought they had most likely gone north, but he wasn’t sure where. They had not gone to the witch’s home (he had people watching it) but he doubted even his brother was that stupid.

He couldn’t be overly troubled by them though. He wanted to find them and he’d keep looking, but there was nothing they could do to him so it hardly mattered.

Perhaps she’d die birthing his brother’s spawn. It’d be a waste, he thought she was very powerful, but there would be more witches soon for that.

Funny, the Court thought the witches would be running the kingdom if Kieran were king but Donovan was the one who nearly put a witch on the throne. How very lucky they were that Kieran intervened. He’d have them all thanking him soon.

But apart from his useless staff and the escaped idiots, his reign was going rather well. The Trackers were expanding under his leadership. The forts and the ministries and the nobility had all acknowledged him as king - even the worm Worthingham had personally acknowledged him, which saved his life for the time being.

He was looking forward to his coronation. He was king already, but a grand formal acknowledgement would be just the thing. His mother was planning it which he thought would help her remember to be obedient. He liked obedient women.

He had so many changes ahead of him, it was thrilling. He would dissolve the King’s Council of course. He had a number of new laws he wanted and the council would just get in the way. He’d be changing the Selection of course. There would be the monitoring center and the “schools,” too. He’d be changing a lot of things. It would take time, but in ten years, the kingdom would be transformed.

He’d show everyone what a very good thing it was that he was king.